“The Deserters”

As the opening title track to Rachel Zeffira's debut album, "The Deserters" offers, by way of introduction, a farewell: "One day, we'll meet again/ One day, we'll speak like we did back then," she sings to a soon-to-be-ex or frenemy, though those forlorn words are delivered in a calm voice that suggests a certain contentment with letting fate take its course. It's a philosophy that could easily be applied to Zeffira's own nomadic path, both geographically (she was born in Canada, lives in London, but first stepped into the spotlight at the Vatican) and musically.

Though Zeffira's a formally trained opera singer, the sort of candelabra-lit chamber-pop she's released-- as one half of Horrors offshoot Cat's Eyes and now under her own name-- is refreshingly bereft of glass-shattering histrionics. There's a soft-seater stateliness to "The Deserters" that hints at Zeffira's past pursuits, with the singer's daydreamy coo cascading atop a rolling piano line and regal woodwind refrain. But the song floats gently up to the rafters rather than hurl itself toward the back rows-- a gentle breeze that nonetheless gradually accrues the magnitude of a tornado-sized swirl.